At the Annual General Meeting of Cricket NSW last night Grahame Thomas and Doug Cole were bestowed the honour of Life Membership. Each has made a significant contribution to cricket in NSW in their own unique way.

Doug Cole first joined the North Sydney District Cricket Club in 1961 and over the past 50 years has served as player, Secretary, President and Club Delegate to Cricket NSW. In a 25 year playing career Doug scored over 7000 runs for the club and then moved into administration, serving on the NSW Country Committee and then on the Sydney Cricket Association Committee of Management. In 2004 Doug was elected as a Director of the NSW Cricket Board and continues in that role to this day. Since 2008, Doug has been the New South Wales representative on the Cricket Australia Game Development Committee.

Grahame Thomas enjoyed a successful playing career for New South Wales and Australia between 1957 and 1966, playing eight Test matches for Australia and sixty eight First Class matches for New South Wales. A stylish right-hand batsman, Grahame boasted a First Class average of 40.32, which included 17 centuries. Grahame played the majority of his Grade cricket career with Bankstown-Canterbury and was honoured in 2005 with the renaming of Bankstown’s Memorial Outer Oval to the Grahame Thomas Oval. Over the past decade, Grahame has been actively involved with junior cricket, being a founding member of the Manly-Warringah Junior Academy in 2003, in addition to coaching with juniors at all levels in the area.